Now a North County reporter is investigating the history of this national conversation from a New York perspective.

Adirondack Bureau Chief at North Country Public Radio Brian Mann is launching a Kickstarter project to raise funds to produce an hour-long radio documentary.

The documentary would air on National Public Radio Stations across the country and was prompted by the 40th anniversary of the Nelson Rockefeller drug laws.

The laws, which were named after the former US vice president and New York state governor, cracked down on drug crimes and shaped Americans understanding of crime and justice.

The documentary will look into what motivated the laws, specifically how the us went from being a country that incarcerates very few to a country that locks up more people than any other nation.

“We wanted to figure out why he embraced those ideas, what they meant for the country. It also is important that here in the North Country, it also changed this part of the world. We went from a place where there were a couple of prisons to a part of New York where there are more than 20 correctional facilities. It's a big part of what people do here,” said Mann.

Mann needs to raise $19,000 to produce the program.

All donations are coming from his Kickstarter page.

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